SANTA ANITA LEADERS
(Through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Antonio Fresu / 8
Juan Hernandez / 8
Umberto Rispoli / 7
Hector Berrios / 4
(Six tied) / 3
Trainers / Wins
Phil D’Amato / 7
John Sadler / 6
Bob Baffert / 5
George Papaprodromou / 3
(Five tied) / 2
UPCOMING STAKES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
• $200,000, Grade II Charles Whittingham Stakes, 4-year-olds and up, 1 ¼ miles on turf
Sunday
• $100,000 Santa Barbara Stakes, fillies and mares, 4 and up, 1 ½ miles on turf
LOS ALAMITOS
Saturday
• $35,000 La Pacifica Handicap, quarter-horse fillies and mares, 3 and up, 350 yards
Sunday
• $50,000 Miss Princess Handicap, quarter-horse fillies and mares, 3 and up, 350 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Beyond the Kentucky Derby, California stars look prominent in many of the seven Grade I stakes and eight Grade II and III stakes on Churchill Downs’ Kentucky Oaks and Derby cards Friday and Saturday. Friday, Bob Baffert-trained Santa Anita Oaks winner Tenma (Juan Hernandez riding) is one of 13 challengers for morning-line favorite Good Cheer (Luis Saez) in the Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies; Santa Anita Handicap winner Locked (Jose Ortiz) and Doug O’Neill’s San Pasqual winner Katonah (Antonio Fresu) face Fierceness (John Velazquez) in the Alysheba Stakes; Richard Baltas’ Ag Bullet (Umberto Rispoli) and Jeff Mullins’ Queen Maxima (Hernandez) are the favorites in the Unbridled Sidney Stakes turf sprint, and Jonathan Thomas’ Will Then (Rispoli) runs in the Edgewood Stakes for fillies on turf. Saturday, Baffert’s Nysos (Flavien Prat) returns to racing in the Churchill Downs Stakes sprint; Baffert’s Madaket Road (Irad Ortiz Jr.) and Gaming (Velazquez) are favorites in the Pat Day Mile; Richard Mandella’s Santa Monica Stakes winner Kopion (Kazushi Kimura) could fetch tempting odds against Ways and Means (Prat) in the in the Derby City Distaff sprint; Mullins’ Iron Man Cal (Fresu) makes his 3-year-old debut in the American Turf; Phil D’Amato’s Gold Phoenix (Rispoli) tries the Turf Classic.
• Thorpedo Anna (Brian Hernandez Jr.) is 2-5 in Friday’s La Troienne Stakes, the heaviest morning-line favorite of the two days at Churchill Downs, as the 4-year-old filly continues her quest to be America’s first repeat Horse of the Year since Wise Dan in 2012-13.
• With Gold Phoenix in Louisville instead of defending his 2024 Charles Whittingham Stakes victory, John Shirreffs’ 4-year-old Atitlan (Hector Berrios) looks hard to beat in the 1 1/4-mile turf race at Santa Anita on Saturday. Adding the Whittingham to his San Luis Rey Stakes win in March would make Atitlan the fifth double-graded-stakes winner at Santa Anita this season, joining Journalism, Tenma, Kopion and Cavalieri.
• Kevins Wise Corona ($11.60) and jockey Jesus Rios Ayala recorded the Los Alamitos quarter-horse meet’s fastest 350 yards with a 17.351 clocking in the Kaweah Bar Handicap last Saturday, the 4-year-old’s first stakes win.
• Friday night’s meet-closing harness card at Cal Expo in Sacramento may mark the end of standardbred racing in California and the end of any horse racing in the north of the state. Fairgrounds officials last Friday opted out of a contract with harness operator Watch and Wager LLC that was to have run to 2030. With a fall harness season canceled, county-fair meets called off and Golden Gate Fields shuttered last spring, there now is no scheduled racing for any breed in the state outside of Santa Anita, Los Alamitos and Del Mar. Humboldt County fair leaders still hope to run a short season at Ferndale in August. But California Horse Racing Board approval is considered unlikely.
• The seemingly successful California Crown day of racing and other entertainment at Santa Anita last September won’t be repeated, Horse Racing Nation was first to report. Track operator 1/ST has decided to slash the California Crown Stakes’ $1 million purse and call the Breeders’ Cup Classic stepping stone by its original name, the Goodwood Stakes. Subsanador and jockey Mike Smith won the main event in 2024 in front of a crowd of a refreshingly youthful crowd of 21,812 lured in part by Shaboozey and other musical acts.
• Santa Anita runs its first 2-year-old race of 2025, a 4 1/2-furlong sprint, on Friday. At this meet in 2024, Steve Knapp led all trainers in 2-year-old wins with three, followed by Luis Mendez, Steve Miyadi, Peter Miller, Bob Baffert and Ryan Hanson with two each.
– Kevin Modesti
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